1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of electronic sales transactions, and, more particularly, to locating and organizing digital receipt data for use in in-store audits.
2. Related Art
In a variety of transactions, customers or buyers of goods or services typically receive receipts from their respective merchants or service providers as proof of existence of conducted transactions. Generally, receipts are issued by merchants and service providers for a number of reasons including, for example, regulatory or tax reasons and convenience purposes. A receipt provides information about a corresponding transaction for the purpose of providing all participants with a trace or record of the transaction. Receipts can later be used by a consumer for various purposes including, for example, proving participation in a transaction for tax reporting purpose, product returns, use as a claim ticket for a further transaction, provisioning warranties, etc. Merchants can issue receipts to a customer in digital and/or paper format.
Some merchants also audit customers on exit to mitigate shoplifting, check for cashier errors, etc. To conduct an exit audit, a human auditor reviews items in the customer's cart, sack, etc. and compares items in the customer's possession to items listed on the customer's receipt to verify that items were indeed purchased.
A number of factors limit the amount of time that can be allocated for auditing an individual customer. For example, depending on the number of auditors, how busy a store is, a merchant's desire to allow customers to efficiently exit a store, etc. a human auditor may have from a few seconds up to a minute to audit each individual customer. Due at least in part to these time limitations, a human auditor typically verifies only a few items at most when conducting an exit audit for a customer.
Since a few items at most are verified, exit audits often produce marginal results. Items on a receipt can be listed in a random order (e.g., the order the cashier scanned the items) making it difficult for a human auditor to efficiently verify an item was purchased. As such, items that are less important to audit, for example, cheaper items or lower profit margin items may be listed on parts of the receipt that are more efficient for a human auditor to view (e.g., near the top, on the first page, etc.). On the other hand, items that are more important to audit, for example, more expensive items, higher profit margins items, or items with increased likelihood of being stolen may be listed on parts of the receipt that are less efficient for a human auditor to view (e.g., in the middle or bottom, on subsequent pages, etc.). When it is less efficient to view important items, fewer important items can be audited in an allotted time. Thus, an exit audit may verify the purchase of at least some cheaper or lower profit margin items at the expense of overlooking more expensive items or items that are more likely to be stolen.
Further, exit audits are also somewhat annoying and intrusive to customers. A customer may wait in one line to checkout. After checkout, the customer may find they have to wait in another line to get audited. When a human auditor is eventually reached, the customer is asked to produce a receipt. The customer must then wait while the auditor verifies items in a cart, sack, etc. against the produced receipt.
Audits based on digital receipts can be even more intrusive to a customer and also more difficult for a human auditor to conduct. For example, to conduct an audit based on a digital receipt, the auditor may request to view the digital receipt on a customer's mobile device (e.g., a mobile phone). This is intrusive to the customer as they are being asked to show the contents of their mobile device to a stranger. It may also be that the mobile device the digital receipt was sent to is not in the customer's possession, has a dead battery, etc.
If a digital receipt is presented, a human auditor may be able to view the digital receipt only for a moment and then must verify items from the digital receipt. Further, a mobile device may lack sufficient screen size to display an entire digital receipt at once. Thus, only a portion of a digital receipt may be visible on the mobile device when shown to the human auditor. User interaction (e.g., scrolling to a next page, etc.) may be required for other portions of a digital receipt to be displayed. However, the mobile device is property of the customer. As such, the human auditor has no right to take possession of the mobile phone to access other portions of the digital receipt. Thus, the human auditor has to perform an audit based on viewed items, which may less desirable items to audit relative to other items.
Further, many states in the United States do not require a customer to prove that they have purchased anything. As such, a customer may refuse to comply with a request to hand over a receipt or provide a view of a receipt.